Julia+Hartman+Think+Tank


 * Think Tank: Reflection**

After our first Think Tank meeting, I knew I wanted to explore real life teaching experiences with Edolla and Tara. I am often annoyed with myself for speaking or thinking about theory without putting those theories into practice, or without reflecting on how the theory works or might work in my classroom. I came to class with questions about grammar in daily teaching, and I was able to discuss them with Tara and Jeta.

My main concern came from the reading. Is the teacher really the “language guardian and red pen wielder” only? Is there anything to be gained from that? In what context can those be good titles? I had three main questions. What do you do as an English teacher (or what is your job)? How do you teach grammar? What do your students think about grammar? I confess to selfish motives. I am lost when it comes to teaching grammar (as I suspect many English teachers are) and I am ready to try anything that has worked for anyone. I was hoping my tank mates might have some suggestions.

When it comes to defining an English teacher’s job, we had all run in to similar problems. English teachers have often chosen their careers because of their love of literature. We want to delve into character and plot and the magic of reading. Very often, the curriculum says that those are the areas upon which we should focus. Not so, say the math, science, history and even foreign language teachers. We English teachers are fully responsible for our students’ writing skills. Woe is us indeed. I had found that, before this class, I was ready to bemoan my students’ skills, but not ready to do anything about it. In our tank, we had all fallen into the trap of blaming the teachers before us. It is tough when you come to the realization that you must step up and do something about your students’ writing. If not you, who? I came out of this discussion eager to work with my students on their writing and their understanding of Standard English grammar. I am also thinking about working with others teachers, those dreaded history and science folk. I want to find a way to give them basic grammar tools. I want this to be enforced across curricula, and I want the other teachers to be confident enough in their own grammar, so they can help me do my job. Yes, we came to the conclusion that teaching writing is the job of the English teacher, in addition to reading, but we’ll take any help we can get.

The second two questions are harder, but more important once you’ve made the commitment to teaching grammar. How, exactly, do you do it? Jeta explained that she’d had actual success with comparative analysis and it was reassuring to hear that someone outside of an article or book, a real-live human teacher, was able to work with this technique. Before that, it may have seemed too good to be true. Since this discussion, I’ve broached this topic with my students. We spend a lot of time listening to each other’s speech and discussing its implications. We talk about informal and formal speech, and when it is appropriate. My students have been known to correct me. That’s how I know that they’re really listening, and that they care. I’ve sold them on it.

And that brings us to the last question, concerning students’ opinions of grammar. Our consensus during our think tank was that it often seems like our students do not think about grammar, or if they do, they don’t like it at all. Grammar has a negative connotation and leaves a bad taste in pretty much everyone’s mouths. Even English teachers hate grammar. Grammar is, however, part of our job. We have to value grammar, and we have to show our students why they should value it. Unfortunately, I think we’ll have to, every year, undo a lot of opinions on grammar. If we start at the very beginning of the year, however, and use enthusiasm, proven techniques, and real listening to our students’ concerns, I think it is very possible to get a lot done over the course of the year. If we as teachers really look into our students’ writing, we’ll be able to see what they need and we’ll create relevant, meaningful lessons. I’m working on this now. I haven’t solved everything, maybe I haven’t solved anything, but I know what needs to be worked on.